Cornea Society News

JAN 2018

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News
January 2018 Vol. 15, No. 1
A Cornea Society publication
A
t the Cornea and Eye Bank-
ing Forum, several prestigious
awards were presented. The R.
Townley Paton Award Lecture
was given by Michael Nordlund, MD,
Cincinnati, and was titled "Reflections
on the Success and Future of Eye Bank-
ing." Dr. Nordlund shared experiences
from the last 16 years of his work with
the Eye Bank Association of America
(EBAA).
Prior to eye banking it was the
surgeon's responsibility to take care of
many of the functions of eye banks to-
day, including recovery, donor eligibili-
ty, tissue evaluation, processing, storage,
distribution, and record keeping/trace-
ability.
It's a collaboration, Dr. Nordlund
said. Surgeons are working with eye
banks, but every eye bank also has a
medical director overseeing the process-
es. Dr. Nordlund highlighted some of
the innovations in eye banking. The rea-
son we've been able to approach surgery
differently is because of the willingness
of eye banks to innovate and provide
tissues, he said.
"We want quality tissue, and we
want quality surgery," Dr. Nordlund
said. This is the glue that holds eye
banks together from both the physician
and eye bank side. The EBAA has been
there overseeing this transformation,
making sure there are methods to assess
tissue quality. So there is the surgeon in
the OR doing surgery, eye banks respon-
sible for recovery and preparation of
tissue, and the EBAA monitoring.
Dr. Nordlund shared his thoughts
on some threats on the horizon and
why it's important to be aware of what's
made eye banking successful. He spoke
about consolidation, noting patterns of
consolidation in healthcare. Consolida-
tion does have benefits, he said. You can
standardize, and there's market leverage.
Disadvantages of consolidation include
less diversity for innovation, increased
separation between end user/supplier,
and disruption of the feedback loop.
Consolidation is going to change eye
banking, Dr. Nordlund said. This will
make it more important that physicians
maintain input in the process and be in-
volved in the EBAA, as well as with their
local bank. Dr. Nordlund encouraged
attendees to consider locally sourced
products.
The Claes H. Dohlman, MD, PhD
Award was given to Mark Mannis, MD,
Sacramento, California. This award
recognizes a lifetime of teaching excel-
lence in the field of cornea and external
Prestigious awards presented at
Cornea and Eye Banking Forum
Dr. Mannis thanks members of the Cornea Society and other mentors in the cornea field
after receiving the Claes H. Dohlman, MD, PhD Award.
continued on page 3